Alcohol Smuggling

News and statistics about the illegal alcohol trade. Smuggling of alcohol to evade taxes, modern day bootlegging, and data about counterfeit alcohol and sprits is collected from security agencies, criminal justice programs and other public sources.

With alcohol being banned in Pakistan, a bootlegger can earn up to $4,000 a year selling bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch Whisky on the black market. The earnings is about seven times more than the average Pakistani yearly salary.

Some alcoholic smugglers pay police chiefs up to $1,200 a month in bribes in order to allow contraband alcohol to be allowed to pass through, with lower level bootleggers paying $350 in bribes to be released from police custody.

Cans of Carlsberg and Heineken are sold for $8 a can, and bottles of Whiskey sold for $25 to $50.

In general, prices of alcoholic beverages sold on the black market are 20 percent higher then the price when it was sold legally in bars.

According to Revenue and Customs, one in eight bottles of alcohol consumed in the United Kingdom in 2008 was illegally smuggled into the country. The year before, the ration was one in ten bottles that avoided taxes.

40 million liters of smuggled alcohol was consumed in the United Kingdom in 2008.